Day 54 of Coronavirus lockdown

Broad beans

The emphasis is on getting to work rather than staying home. It is not possible to eliminate risk entirely. I read recently that out of the 36000 or so deaths, most have been in the over 80s. A figure of something like 246 deaths of people under the age of 40 sticks in my mind. I think the odds of being injured in a road traffic accident are probably higher.

Well, actually as of last Monday, things have eased up a little in England. We can now go out as often as we want. The mantra has changed to "Stay alert, save the NHS, save lives".....or something like that. I don't actually remember apart from the Stay alert bit which many people seem to be confused by. So confused that the Govt. issued a detailed explanation of what they meant. I think many people are really enjoying being told exactly what to do, when to go out, when to stay in, how to interact with others. 

So we can now go to the park, have a picnic, sit on a bench. But we cannot go visit elderly relatives in care homes. That is a fiasco. The Court of human rights is looking into whether the human rights of care home residents have been infringed. More and more evidence is emerging that there was a directive in place to release elderly patients from hospital into care homes without testing if they were still infectious with COVID-19. Private care home owners have said they were able to refuse, but others were forced into taking in these patients and then it spread in the care home. 

Schools are supposed to go back in a phased way - reception, yr1 and yr 6 on 1st June. The unions are resisting it - I guess it is easy for teachers to refuse to go back as they are still being paid. Parents with school age children in deprived areas with insecure employment have fewer choices. The academies are defying the unions and are their schools back as they have more autonomy. So far the evidence seems to be that particularly young children neither catch nor spread the disease - out of 62 NHS nurseries that have been open during this period, only 3 have had any positive tests for COVID-19 and of those, there have been no instances of children passing it on. Mainly staff picking it up from outside I suspect. 

There is a lot on the news about the difference between different regions. It does seem to make sense. If you live somewhere where the virus is ramping up, then it makes more sense not to ease the restrictions. But if you live somewhere where the virus is under control - I think they had something like 26 new cases in London yesterday, then surely you should go back to something resembling normal. 

On a positive note - my broad beans have really grown well and I can even see little mini-beans forming. Hopefully they will stay blight free and we shall be eating some of our own before the season is over.

Red Mite......again

On Monday I had just sat down at my laptop after playing with my chickensin the run, getting them to jump on my knee to take treats out of my hands. I spotted the unmistakable little mite wandering across the bottom of my laptop screen. Recognised it instantly, even though it was not red, i.e. had not recently fed. I squished it

I trotted back to the chickens and looked carefully in the eglu and there was one little accumulation of red mites. Just in a corner between the roosting bars and the nest box. I looked very carefully, and could see others, but very few seemed to be moving. I dust the entire eglu with diatomaceous earth each time I clean it which, if the mites wander over it, dessicates and kills them. However I had become complacent. I wasn't checking the roosting bars as carefully as I should, and I wasn't washing everything each time, so I'd allowed the little mites to gain a foothold.

So I swung into action. Here are my steps for getting rid of red mite. I video'd myself during each step, and have made a recording probably as much for my own benefit as for anyone else. Nevertheless, I recall how worried I was the first time I had red mite so I hope this post and associated video will help any other backyard chicken keepers facing this teeny enemy for the first time. 

Day 1: Monday

Having discovered the mites, my priority was to remove the chickens to somewhere safe. Over the years I have acquired 4 eglus. I use only one in the main walk in run (WIR). I have another in the outdoor run. I have one set aside as a spare (in case the main eglu gets red mite) and I have another eglu plus tunnel permanently set up and empty as a hospital eglu. In this case, I removed the chickens from their red eglu in the WIR to the green hospital eglu. However to minimise the red mites that would transfer across with the chickens, I took each one out, one by one, and rubbed diatomacious earth into their bodies, focusing on chest, under wing, back and vent. 

Having cleared the WIR, I then dismantled the red eglu and moved it, and all the perching blocks, dustbaths, run enrichment toys etc out onto the grass. I sprayed everything, every nook and cranny, with mite killer. Any proprietory brand will do the trick. I have read that if you simply jet wash everything without first killing off the mites, you spread them all over your garden. 

I then left everything in the sun to sterilise.

Also, I took all my clothes off and put straight in the washing machine and had a shower to reduce the change of introducing red mite into the house.

Day 2: Tuesday

Today I cleared out all the bedding. This was a surprisingly tiring task. Previously I have made every mistake in the book. Clearing things without first killing the red mites, for instance - I once gave red mite infestation to my large black wheely bin once! That was disgusting. 

Again, total clothes change, wash clothes and shower before joining the household.

Day 3: Wednesday

Today is the fun day - jet washing. So enjoyable, yet I couldn't say why. I jet washed the spare pink eglu first - it was clean and clear of mites, but had got a little grubby as it had been stored outside. Then I jet washed the floor of the run and lastly the red eglu that had the mites. Before washing it, I checked carefully. There were still one or two little mites alive in the roosting bars. In fact, that was where they had been hiding out - the diatomaceous earth is a powder, and all the surfaces had been well covered, but underneath the bars was clear of powder and so an ideal breeding ground for the nasty little mites. 

I zapped them with mite killer before jetwashing the entire thing. I then took the door portion from the base portion and discovered that there were crevices there where mites could hide. Important to dismantle everything.

Having washed everything, I left it in the sun to try out. The red eglu has gone into storage ready for my next red mite problem. Provided it is unused for 8 months, any mites left on it (and I believe I've got rid of them all) will have died so it should be fine. 

Day 4: Thursday

Time to reassemble everything. I used Poultry shield on the pink eglu before reassembling it. I don't know if that will make much difference, but it can only help. I put everything back together in the WIR and dusted with diatomaceous earth. Then I moved the chickens back home. I took the opportunity to spray their legs with scaley mite spray just in case. 

Looking carefully at the green hospital eglu, I could see one or two clear mites (unfed) in the poop tray so there had obviously been some on the birds when I moved them across. Each time I handle the girls, I end up with up to 3 little mites on me. However they are all clear, unfed mites so I'm hoping that infestation will not build up either in the hen house, or in my home.

My plan moving forward is to clean and change the roosting bars and poop try every 3 days, and to reapply diatomaceous earth every day. I think the mites have a 5 day life cycle, so if I clean everything thoroughly every 3 days, and if in the interim the place is full of diatomaceous earth which should kill them, I'm hoping to eradicate them. 

If you don't have a spare eglu, then much of what I have done will not be possible. The first time I had red mite, I had only one eglu and I controlled it by cleaning regularly and spraying with mite killer. If they cannot find a little dark place to accumulate and breed, I think they will eventually die out. 

Here's an 18 minute video of the whole process

Day 39 of Coronavirus Lockdown

I submitted the revised version of my paper yesterday. It is much better and I'm very happy with it. That has taken up much more of my time than I expected, so not much blogging. The glorious April weather we have been having up until a few days ago broke and it has been pouring, so not too difficult to sit working on the paper.

While the sun has been out and it's been lovely and warm, I've really enjoyed walking in the woods and discovering more footpaths. I'm so fortunate to live here. It feels like CoronaVirus is a million miles away. Last Sunday we recorded ourselves playing the tune for a Morris dance called Hells Bells. This was to be the master music track so I uploaded it on YouTube. Then the dancers and musicians from our side, Wicket Brood, can record themselves dancing or playing along to it and we can post it as a video on our Facebook page. Stuart, a brilliant melodion play in our band who has also demonstrated spectacular video editing skills is editing all the footage down. I can't wait to see how it looks.

After recording ourselves in the courtyard playing our instruments, we recorded ourselves doing a bit of the dance, then we recorded ourselves at the end of the garden. As we did so, a couple of ladies and a dog walked past in the field at the end. There is no footpath on the field, but one of the ladies said she was from the victorian house up the hill and owned the field. It was lovely to meet our neighbours in such an odd way (we were in full Morris kit with face paint and everything). She said they heard the lovely music and came along to see what it was. She invited us to come for their midsummer celebrations. So, Coronavirus can be a great way to meet new people.

 

Other news, well Boris Johnson and Carrie Symonds had a baby boy on Wednesday morning - 29th April. I wonder if they will call him Tom after the veteran who has raised £26million by walking round his garden in Marston Mortaine, not far from here, who was 100 years old on 30th April. They did a spitfire flyby for him which was lovely. Boris is back, but the noises from government are that this lockdown is likely to continue. Recent surveys suggest that 60% of British people would feel anxious and uncomfortable about going out if the restrictions were removed.

That number doesn't include me! I'd be out like a shot. I know somebody who has the virus. He is in his 30s and on day 12 of the disease. It sounds unpleasant, but not unbearable. It seems to me that the choice is to wreck the economy by keeping able-bodied people and school children at home, yet coping with a huge toll of elderly people in care homes, just in case we catch it.

It sounds like the Govt are considering options for lifting the restrictions. Financially, it is getting dire. I've read that 1 in 6 retail businesses are not going to reopen. British Airways are making 12,000 staff redundant. Ryan air and Easyjet are looking to do similar, focus being on pilots and air crew. People are being asked to take pay cuts. Others are furloughed at 80% up to a fairly low ceiling, so many families are wondering how they are going to survive economically.

I read an interesting article today in the Telegraph, written by an American, that suggested that lockdown i the best cousrse of action. I find it quite convincing, especially since here in the UK we failed spectacularly at protecting our most vulnerable elderly people in care homes. Mass testing and tracking and tracing as outlined by the Government is very welcome, but this should have been attempted much earlier, and the social care sector really needs to be treated as part of the NHS, not siloed, making elderly people into some sort of second class citizen.